Dallas Keuchel leads the Astros past the Yankees and into their first-ever ALDS.

Heading into this year's edition of the American League Wild Card Game, you had to appreciate that the upstart Astros' first postseason opponents were the Yankees, the team that for much of the past two decades has served as the American League's gatekeeper; the narratives about new versus old spread themselves. Another contrast you had to appreciate was the out-of-place starting-pitcher matchup. On the eve of Jake Arrieta and Gerrit Cole trading flame-emoji heaters, the Astros and Yankees started two pitchers who in the game combined for one pitch clocked above 95 mph, according to PITCHf/x data.

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The Astros and Yankees battle for the chance to dethrone the defending AL champion Royals.

With a six-game lead in the AL East, the New York Yankees remained subdued at the July 31st trade deadline. They refused to mortgage their future while the Toronto Blue Jays loaded up for a long fall. As a result, they were disposed of in the divisional race, and nearly lost home-field advantage in the wild-card game.

Today we reveal the Baseball Prospectus staff predictions for the division standings and the major player awards (MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year) in the American and National Leagues. Each staff member's division standings predictions may be found later in the article. Here, we present a wisdom-of-the-crowds summary of the results. In each table you'll find the average rank of each team in their division with first-place votes in parentheses, plus the results of our pre-season MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year voting.

For the MVP voting, we've slightly amended the traditional points system in place that has been used elsewhere, dropping fourth- and fifth-place votes to make it 10-7-5 for the MVP Award, and the regular 5-3-1 for the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year Awards (that's 5 points for a first-place vote, 3 points for a second-place vote, etc.).

The A's stumbled into the postseason, but they may have the edge on the hill and in the dugout against the Royals.

With their poor second half, the Athletics fumbled away the AL West and gifted home-field advantage to the Royals for Tuesday night's AL Wild Card game. As a result, Kauffman Stadium will host its first postseason contest since 1985 against, fittingly enough, the franchise that used to call Kansas City home. In our comprehensive Wild Card preview, we'll try to determine which team will advance to face the Angels for entrance to the ALCS. (Note: Neither team's Wild Card roster is set, so we'll update the article when the names are officially announced.)

The Pirates throw a left-handed sinkerballer against a lineup ill-suited for left-handers and sinkerballers; the Reds will try to ride their OBP stars to give Johnny Cueto a shot at postseason redemption.

With a weekend sweep in Cincinnati, the Pirates laid claim to home field advantage in Tuesday's NL Wild Card game, guaranteeing that playoff-starved Pittsburgh fans will see postseason baseball at PNC Park. In our comprehensive Wild Card preview, we'll do our best to divine whether the Pirates' surprise season will survive another rematch with the Reds. (Note: Neither team's Wild Card roster is set, so we'll update the article when the names are officially announced.)

The American League wild card battle took centerstage this past weekend, but Henderson Alvarez stole the spotlight on Sunday afternoon.

The No-Hitter
With most eyes focused on the AL Wild Card race over the weekend, Henderson Alvarez turned heads on Sunday with an outstanding performance that ended the season for the Marlins in dramatic fashion.

Through eight innings, Alvarez had rendered the Tigers hitless and allowed just two batters to reach base. The right-handed hurler plunked Prince Fielder with a slow curveball in the first inning, while Jose Iglesias reached base on an Adeiny Hechavarria error in the fifth.

Mariano Rivera bids farewell to New York, the Rangers and Indians win wild ones, and Jason Heyward has a big day.

The Thursday Takeaway
Moments after the Rays defeated the Yankees 4-0, last night, Mariano Rivera went out to the mound. He knelt down, gathered a handful of dirt, and, with that keepsake in hand, bid farewell to the ballpark in which he made 629 career appearances, 53 of them in the playoffs.

The Indians pull off the sweep, the Reds edge Pittsburgh, the Royals take a close one from Texas, and more.

The Weekend Takeaway
It’s not easy to sweep a four-game series, even against the 2013 Astros. The A’s, Angels, Blue Jays, Rays, Rockies, and White Sox all tried to do that, and all of them came up with three wins or fewer. The Indians, though, would not be denied.

Terry Francona’s club smelled blood with the Astros coming to town and the second wild card spot within reach. And they did what contenders are supposed to do in September: they took care of business, holding the visitors to two runs on Sunday and one run in each of the first three.

The Rangers win, the Royals lose, the Braves drop a close one in unusual fashion, and the Marlins flash some leather.

The Tuesday Takeaway
The Rangers notched at least one home run in each of their first seven September games, though the yardwork did them little good, as they went 2-5. In their next seven, all losses, they didn’t go deep even once. Slugging .291 as a team over the course of that skid, during which they never led, Ron Washington’s squad was in dire need of a jolt. On Tuesday, Ian Kinsler didn’t wait long to supply it.